It is unusual, to say the least, to lead discussion of an operatic performance by reference to current events.
On this occasion, however, that is essential. Ellen Kent has been bringing companies from Eastern Europe to tour the UK for many years.
The present visit began in January and ends this Sunday.
From the opera house in Kyiv
It is impossible to imagine the stress under which these Ukrainian singers and orchestra from the opera house at Kyiv have been living, far from home while their families are in constant danger as parts of their country are obliterated by the Russian attacks.
The Perth Concert Hall, hosting the company for the first time on Wednesday, was crowded, and enthusiastic from the start.
At the end of the evening the Ukrainian flag was produced on stage, and the company struck up with a highly emotional rendering of their national anthem as the audience stood and cheered.
This was an entirely appropriate way to end a performance that showed these artists at their best.
The impressive permanent set was effective at representing the streetscape of Seville at the start and the bull-ring at the end.
It was less appropriate for the central inn and mountain scenes, but the performers worked well to make those effective. The chorus sang and danced with plenty of spirit.
The orchestra began the evening playing the prelude at an impressive speed, which was repeated in the final act.
The woodwind solos in the various interludes were also beautifully played.
One of the best orchestras
This was one of the best orchestras these tours have presented.
The excellent conductor, Vasyl Vasylenko, has toured here before, but his biography – now based in Kyiv, previously trained in Lviv, with periods in Odessa and even Donbass in the Donetsk region, cannot previously have had such impact on the audience.
The Carmen, Katerina Timbaliuk, was touring the UK for the first time. She comes from the opera house at Odessa and made an extremely effective interpreter.
An elegant Carmen
She is slender and elegant, and a very good actor, really one of the best players of the part we have seen.
The only deficiency was perhaps the lack of a vibrant chest register for the scenes of seduction and fortune-telling.
But it had been held in reserve, and was highly dramatic as she taunted Don José in the finale.
Her two friends, Frasquita and Mercedes, were also played by newcomers, with vivid interpretations from Anastasiia Blokha and Liudmila Revutscaia.
The other principals were familiar from previous tours. Alyona Kistenyova, also based in Odessa, made a full-voiced and unusually dramatic Micaëla.
The toreador, Escamillo, was played by the Moldovan baritone Petru Racovita.
He is a veteran of these tours and has been seen in the part for the best part of twenty years. He is unusually tall and elegant, which makes him able to dominate the stage in his famous entrance song.
His voice does not have the beautiful smooth delivery of previous years, but he still projects well. The Don José produced much effectively dramatic singing at the tragic climax.
